About 20 years ago, Dr. Valentine discovered a tumor in my left kidney. My husband Royce and I went to Duffee Church of God and asked for healing prayer as described in James Chapter Five, calling for the elders to come, lay hands on me, anoint with oil, and pray the prayer of faith. The pastor at that time agreed, this was done, and we left, not even knowing the people at the church by name. I had the surgery, and afterward, when I woke up in recovery, the surgeon came in to tell me and Royce, “We had to remove the kidney anyway, but the cancer was necrotic,” meaning “dead.” I praised God, but it did not occur to me then to go back to that church to thank them and give my testimony as to their prayers having been answered. Until just recently!
After searching for the church, discovering it was now called Temple of Praise Church of God of Little Rock, I went alone several weeks ago. The pastor at that time, Bro. Mike Miles, graciously gave me time to give my testimony of what had happened back then. It didn’t take long to tell, and afterward he told the people in attendance that day, “This church was not established by accident.” Mine was just one of many incidents where people have been blessed there. I spoke with him and his wife Denice after the service and they graciously agreed to let me write their story.
Mike A. Miles was born May 19, 1961, to Kenneth and Dorothy Miles. His father was an auto body shop repairman, and his mother was unable to care for him. After his father died when he was ten, Kenneth and Shelby Breland, of Breland Building Supply in Philadelphia took him in. He had two sisters, Kathy Miles Smith and Susan Miles Pilgrim, both of which are now deceased.
Mike worked all through high school, driving a school bus, working at Wal-Mart on weekends, but he did play sports—football, baseball, and basketball—at Philadelphia High School. He finished the two-year Associates Degree in Business from East Central Junior College and the 1½ year course of work to learn Auto Mechanics, also at ECJC. He went on to work at car dealerships, becoming the Service Manager later for Griffis Motors.
In a first marriage, his daughter Hannah Miles McMillin was born June 20, 1988. She is a Nurse Practitioner at Specialty Orthopedic Group, married to Paul McMillin, a financial manager of a loan company in Starkville, Mississippi. They have two sons Gray, five, and Christian, two. After thirteen years of marriage, Mike was divorced in 1994.
Mike told me his maternal grandparents took him to church when he was a boy. Later he said he was raised in an Assembly of God church, which was quite strict back then. He became a Christian, saved at age fourteen, and called to preach. After he was married, he preached for about five years. He told me that he never asked to preach somewhere; he was always called upon to preach at various places. He had his pastoral credentials with the Assembly of God.
After the divorce, he was cleared by the overseers of the denomination to continue preaching because of the reasons for the divorce. So he did preach for a couple more years. However, being depressed, and becoming “backslidden,” he finally gave up, worked for the car dealership for several years, then began his own concrete business. He has worked in that for thirty years.
While working at Griffis Motors, he met Denice Dickey, who had just been hired. After about six months, they were married on November 19, 2000. His wife Denice was born May 28, 1973, to J.C. Dickey and Joan Taylor Dickey (now Agent). Her father worked as a maintenance man, and her mother did factory work. She had two older half-brothers, Dean Dickey Wooley, now deceased, and Richie Dickey Wooley, who lives in Missouri.
In 1991, Denice graduated from Neshoba Central High School in Philadelphia, where she played basketball. She got involved with the party scene as a young teen, learning to drink and use marijuana. Methamphetamine became her drug of choice, she told me, for twelve years. She said, “I wanted to get off it, but I didn’t know what to do without it.” She did work at Nemanco Pants Factory doing office work for a while. For several years, Denice has been grooming dogs for veterinarians, etc., and more recently has opened her own business, Groom On by Denice in Philadelphia.
Mike and Denice’s daughter Taylor was born October 15, 2001. She graduated from Neshoba Central in 2020 and now attends Florida Southern, a Christian college in Lakeland, Florida, where she is studying film production and will graduate in May of 2024.
Denice told me that when she was young, she had attended a Methodist church on and off. When she married Mike, he was backslidden and drinking too much, though he had not been on drugs. She stopped using drugs while she was pregnant and when the baby was small, but a neighbor woman was a bad influence who drew her back into the drug use. In God’s good timing, in about 2004, another neighbor who was a Christian shared with her how to get saved, and Denice told me, “I remember how I knelt at her couch and prayed the sinner’s prayer.”
She started attending church, at first by herself, then Mike began going with her. They first attended a small Baptist church, then Spanish Oak Baptist Church, where Pastor Steve Craft had Mike preach some. They then moved to Rocky Hill Church of God with Bro. Brett Cooper pastoring in Sebastopol. By this time, both had rededicated their lives and were talking about Mike getting back into ministry. While at Rocky Hill a couple years, he continued to preach when called upon. Then Hudson Chapel Church of God called on him to pastor.
At times, the Mississippi Church of God Overseer asked him to take different churches but Bro. Miles didn’t feel led to do so. One day, on a drive from Union to Meridian by way of Highway 494, he saw the Temple of Praise Church of God sign and turned aside to look at the church. The Lord told him, “This is where I want you to come.” Though the church only had two people as members at the time, Shirley and Lynn Sullivan, he became pastor of that church on July 30, 2016. He has pastored there a little over seven years. Their daughter Taylor did the music at first. Since she left for college, Denice and other ladies worked on it, using recorded music until recently when Bro. Ross Crosby and his children came to lead the music, which I really enjoyed when I visited.
Bro. Mike and Denice Miles have been married 22 years and their lives are a testimony of how the Lord takes our puzzle pieces and puts them together to make a beautiful picture of God’s love and grace.
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon! You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
